Chev vs Ford manuals
 

I remember as a teenager marveling over the beautiful accurate line drawings in the Ford manual but also puzzling over how to do things when it seemed often there were gaps in the sequence. I particularly laughed whenever I struck the "reassembly can be made by reversing the above procedure" instruction.

Over the years it has occurred to me Ford must have been way ahead of their time in carbon credits by reducing the amount of ink and paper needed to make a manual.

So as a general comment it seems to me the Chev manual is better laid out and far more informative than the Ford one where the strongest point is good drawings of things so a restorer can see what things should look like and what may be missing from their vehicles.

What's been your experience of the manuals?

Manuals..
 

Keith..
I have scanned the odd manual in my day and found the Canadian manuals lacking info..especially the CMP parts manuals..
The maintenance manuals were good but one really has to have the service bulletins that came out between printings of the MB C1 and the final printing of the MB C2 in September of '43..The service bulletins gave all the modifications and additions that occurred after the printing and were done in the field.

The MB F1 Ford maintenance manual was the only Ford Shop maintenance manual printed as far as I know and I know the Ford Service bulletins exist but have never seen them.

The Chev service bulletins came out in '42 and another whack in '43..

The American vehicle manuals were broken down in a manual for every part of the vehicle and where Canadian manuals may have one parts one service manual the US had twenty manuals..but I guess the powers that made the Canadian manuals figured it would be Canadian farm boys fixing these trucks eventually and they didn't need manuals anyway..
They could fix anything..
Just the way I see it anyway,,.

Good points
 

And you bring up an interesting question, perhaps something someone can compile and make available online - as complete as possible list of both Ford and Chevrolet service bulletins...

I'm one of those Canadian farm boys who can fix anything. I always thought manuals were just so you could order parts! I'll have to check some and see what I've been missing! I go on the theory that it's just nuts and bolts so how hard can it be to figure out anyway?

The second part of the Chev sevice bulletins makes about a 3/4" stack of paper, they are one of the items I have available as reproductions as part of the manual collection that used to be Alex Blair's. The link on the MLU links page still leads to the web site for the manuals I have available. There are some unlisted additions to the collection, feel free to ask if I have what you need.
I am working on sourcing the first series of Chev service bulletins and a set of Ford Bulletins. If I find them, I will add them to the repro publications list.